Insurance process question

[Mr Squarekins]

Chatting to a work friend today, he's had someone drive into the back of his Cayman yesterday. Fortunately the other party is insured and have admitted fault to both insurance companies.

My friend want his car to go to a Porsche Approved bodyshop, as the car is only 6 months old.

His insurance have said, 'ok, but if the estimate is too high, we might contest it and it may have to go to our own repairer'.

What happens? Surely it will be paid for by the 3rd party's insurance. He's not gone crazy and asked for a posh courtesy car, as he cycles to work.

How does it work? I'd got no idea, so couldn't suggest what to do.

[DeadShed]

They are wrong. You have a legal right to choose your repairer. Insurance companies will try and BS you with stuff like this and about how they won t warrantee the work, but the law is on your (well your friends) side. I have done it twice before. Both time times wanting to take a BMW to BMW to repair. The insurance co fussed about it, saying they won t warranty the work and they won t give a courtesy car and it will cost more. The BMW warranty was better, and didn t risk any issues with related parts the insurance co wouldn t cover, BMW gave a courtesy car and from memory the excess was £50 more, or less if you take in to account the amount of cans of coke and biscuits I consumed when I dropped off and picked up the car.

Edited by DeadShed on Wednesday 22 October 20:03

Edited by DeadShed on Wednesday 22 October 20:06

[e-honda]

Don't go through your own insurer if someone else has accepted liability and the 3rd party insurer is willing to deal direct
This is your best chance of keeping control of the claim and avoiding delays.
Only involve your own insurer if the other isn't being reasonable because your own insurer has all the wrong incentives when someone else is paying the bill and you'll find more money going into your hire car than your repair.

[Mr Squarekins]

Not sure who he's with, but he did say that he'd turned down the courtesy car as he doesn't need one. He's got teenage kids so I assume a few cars in the household.

[kestral]

Mr Squarekins said:

Chatting to a work friend today, he's had someone drive into the back of his Cayman yesterday. Fortunately the other party is insured and have admitted fault to both insurance companies.

My friend want his car to go to a Porsche Approved bodyshop, as the car is only 6 months old.

His insurance have said, 'ok, but if the estimate is too high, we might contest it and it may have to go to our own repairer'.

What happens? Surely it will be paid for by the 3rd party's insurance. He's not gone crazy and asked for a posh courtesy car, as he cycles to work.

How does it work? I'd got no idea, so couldn't suggest what to do.

Legally that is correct. Your friend has to mitigate his losses, which means he cannot take the car to be repaired to by someone who charges excessive amount to do the repair.

It does not matter which insurance company is paying, losses should be mitigated by law.

[Mr Squarekins]

I guess that's to stop fraud and massive loading of costs. As it will be an Approved Porsche bodyshop I guess it'll be their market rate and therefore stands up to scrutiny.

Makes sense.

[kiethton]

Nothing wrong with taking a car that new back to Porsche IMO

Had somebody go into the back of our X5 when that was 4 months old and it went back to BMW. It may be slightly different if talking a 15 year old mondeo but in this scenario it'll be fine and is your right.

[GasEngineer]

e-honda said:

Don't go through your own insurer if someone else has accepted liability and the 3rd party insurer is willing to deal direct
This is your best chance of keeping control of the claim and avoiding delays.
Only involve your own insurer if the other isn't being reasonable because your own insurer has all the wrong incentives when someone else is paying the bill and you'll find more money going into your hire car than your repair.

I'm sure that I have seen the opposite advice on this forum: ie don't deal direct with the TP insurers as they try to get away with the minimum they can, while your own insurer knows that they will get their outlay back so are less bothered about cost cutting.

[The Gauge]

e-honda said:

Don't go through your own insurer if someone else has accepted liability and the 3rd party insurer is willing to deal direct
This is your best chance of keeping control of the claim and avoiding delays.
Only involve your own insurer if the other isn't being reasonable because your own insurer has all the wrong incentives when someone else is paying the bill and you'll find more money going into your hire car than your repair.

Are you saying don’t notify your insurers and only communicate with the 3rd party insurance company , or notify yours but then only communicate with the other insurance company?

[davek_964]

The Gauge said:

e-honda said:

Don't go through your own insurer if someone else has accepted liability and the 3rd party insurer is willing to deal direct
This is your best chance of keeping control of the claim and avoiding delays.
Only involve your own insurer if the other isn't being reasonable because your own insurer has all the wrong incentives when someone else is paying the bill and you'll find more money going into your hire car than your repair.

Are you saying don t notify your insurers and only communicate with the 3rd party insurance company , or notify yours but then only communicate with the other insurance company?

Somebody clipped the rear wing of my car several years ago. I did notify my insurers - but the TP insurers admitted fault very quickly and I dealt directly with them.

I chose where the car was repaired. From memory, the TP insurers asked me for photos of the damage which they accepted - but when the bodyshop estimated the cost of repair, they suddenly needed an assessor to see the car which delayed repairs by about a week. It was a slightly odd thing simply because the cost of the repair was pretty minimal compared to the car value - but other than that, everything was fine.

[E-bmw]

The Gauge said:

e-honda said:

Don't go through your own insurer if someone else has accepted liability and the 3rd party insurer is willing to deal direct
This is your best chance of keeping control of the claim and avoiding delays.
Only involve your own insurer if the other isn't being reasonable because your own insurer has all the wrong incentives when someone else is paying the bill and you'll find more money going into your hire car than your repair.

Are you saying don t notify your insurers and only communicate with the 3rd party insurance company , or notify yours but then only communicate with the other insurance company?

He is saying neither, he is just saying that the 3rd party insurer is the only one needed to get the car fixed.

[OutInTheShed]

Could be the two cars have the same underwriters?

With a car you care about and want to preserve the value of, the main thing is to get a repair you are happy with.

It is better to be somewhat out of pocket getting the repair done, than to find later that your car is compromised.
It's not just you the owner who needs to be happy, it's the warranty people and whoever buys the car next.

I'd suggest getting quotes for repairs you'll be happy with, and being prepared to argue your case.

[e-honda]

The Gauge said:

Are you saying don t notify your insurers and only communicate with the 3rd party insurance company , or notify yours but then only communicate with the other insurance company?

No
Communicate with who ever you want, and definitely inform you company of the claim but deal directly with the 3rd party for the claim where possible